CHICAGO—President Barack Obama stopped by a Democratic victory office here on Tuesday to encourage supporters and call volunteers in Wisconsin. The first person he reached on the phone took some time grasping who was on the other line.

At a downtown Obama for America field office, Obama thanked the staff and volunteers before calling a woman named Annie in Wisconsin.

"Hi is this Annie?," Obama said, according to the pool report. "This is Barack Obama."

When it sunk in that the caller wasn't kidding and was indeed the president, they went on to chat.

"She was very nice to me even though she initially didn't know who I was," Obama joked when he set down the receiver. He went on to make six calls to volunteers. On the final one to Jill in Madison, she didn't seem to believe it at first, either.

(Photo by Pete Souza/WH)Politicians seem to love nothing more than to run into a baby on the campaign trail. They hug them, they kiss them, they swing them around in the air--perhaps knowing that posing with a cute kid softens their image among prospective voters.

But leave it to Barack Obama to go and one up his fellow pols, by appearing to magically silence a wailing baby with only a simple touch. It's a feat of infant-wrangling that appears to surprise even First Lady Michelle Obama.

It happened last week at the president's annual congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House and was captured on video by an Obama staff videographer.

Clinton, who possesses them in virtually every color of the rainbow, has made suits her fashion uniform of choice during her time in the public eye. And so prior to yesterday's state dinner, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is herself a pantsuit fan, poked some gentle fun at the Secretary of State's wardrobe, via an unusual gift--taking care to tell Clinton that "you may take it in a playful mode."

When they met on Tuesday, Merkel presented Clinton with a framed copy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper featuring an Associated Press photo of the two leaders during the Secretary of State's visit to Germany

Amid controversy this week regarding whether the White House should publicly release photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse, several lawmakers claimed to have seen the photographs and attested they did indeed provide evidence of bin Laden's death.

But not so fast.

It seems that at least one senator, Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts, was duped by fake bin Laden photos, Michael Levenson reports for the Boston Globe.

"Let me assure you that he is dead, that bin Laden is dead," Brown told cable station NECN in an interview Wednesday. "I have seen the photos and, in fact, we've received the briefing and we'll continue to get the briefings."

"Listen, I've seen the picture," Brown said in a separate interview with Fox25. "He's definitely dead. And if there's any conspiracy theories out there, you should put them to rest." He described the photos as "gruesome."

But NECN posted a statement on its website Wednesday retracting Brown's assertion: "Senator Brown's office tells NECN this afternoon that the bin Laden photos the Senator mentions seeing about 2 minutes into the clip here were not authentic." And a similar statement appeared after the Fox 25 interview, Levenson reports.

mobamaFacebook may seem ubiquitous for today's pre-teen set--but not for the First Daughters.

First Lady Michelle Obama revealed during an interview Wednesday on NBC's Today Show that daughters Sasha, 9, and Malia, 12, are not on the social networking site.

Obama noted that there are Secret Service barriers and other constraints on her daughters, who she suggested are too young to be on the site anyway. "I'm not a big fan of young kids having Facebook," Obama told host Matt Lauer. "So, you know, it's not something they need. It's not necessary right now."

Facebook policy is that users must be 13 or older, though many pre-teens flout that rule.